


i'll come around

by carissima



Category: One Direction (Band), Radio 1 RPF
Genre: Fluff and Smut, Getting Together, M/M, this is tooth-rottingly sweeter than your average tomlinshaw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-09
Updated: 2015-02-09
Packaged: 2018-03-11 10:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3323306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carissima/pseuds/carissima
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Grimmy thinks you’re pretty,” Harry says idly.</p><p>“Obviously,” Louis scoffs. “Wait. What?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	i'll come around

“Grimmy thinks you’re pretty,” Harry says idly.

“Obviously,” Louis scoffs. “Wait. What?”

"It's all over Twitter," Harry says, his gaze locked in his phone. Louis tries to look over his shoulder but Harry just shifts to block his view. "Apparently Keith Lemon was on the show and said you were pretty, like feminine pretty, and Nick agreed."

"What does pretty like a girl mean?" Louis wants to know. He stands up and heads for the bathroom to check his appearance in the mirror, puzzled. "Girls don't usually have scruff on their faces. I don't get it."

"I think they mean you've got like, pretty features. You know, dainty."

"What the hell?" Louis starts frowning, tilting his head from side to side as he stares into the mirror. "I'm not fucking dainty. Zayn's the one Ben picked to be Veronica, if anyone's dainty it's him, yeah?"

"Well, I think it's just different, isn't it?" Harry says confusingly. "Zayn's like, beautiful. And crap at accents, so like, he couldn't have played your role could he?"

"Well, I reckon Grimmy's still full of crap anyway," Louis says which is as much of an agreement that Harry's ever going to get from him. "Anything else good on Twitter then?"

"Fans are mad that we're not in Australia yet," Harry says. "Reckon Niall might have to do the show on his own since he's the only one there."

Louis' eyes light up in mischief. "That's a fucking brilliant idea! Quick, let's call Niall, tell him we can't make it."

Harry looks up, amused. "Liam'll kill you.'"

"Well Liam's not here right now is he, Harold?" Louis points out with an exasperated huff that makes Harry's smile widen. "You're no fun anymore."

"Heyyy I'm loads of fun," Harry says, pouting.

Louis grabs a pillow from underneath him and throws it at Harry's head, pleased when it hits Harry square in the face.

The second pillow actually knocks Harry clean off the bed, his limbs flailing.

"No you're right mate, you're still loads of fun."

*

Louis didn't mean to search Nick on Twitter after that. But he was at LAX, bored and scrolling through his phone looking at Nick's mentions. Then Louis got distracted by a heated discussion over his cheekbones that made him actually flush.

"Hey, Grimmy says you're following him on Twitter again," Harry says, looking up from his phone screen. They're all at the hotel in Sydney arguing over what to order for room service.

"Shit," Louis mutters and grabs his phone and brings up Twitter. "Must've accidentally followed him when I was scrolling through his mentions."

"Why were you scrolling through Grimmy's mentions then?" Niall asks. He's currently draped over Zayn's back and mid-playfight with Liam. They've all paused to look at him and Louis feels his face get warmer.

"Because Grimmy thinks Louis' pretty like a girl," Harry tells them because he's an evil little shit. Louis glares at him and brandishes a pillow, which is enough of a threat to make Harry shut up.

The rest of them don't though and there's far too much teasing about his looks for Louis' liking so he turns back to his phone moodily.

Nick's followed him back.

Louis blinks slowly before he stares at his screen again but no, it's still there. Nick's following him again, which means Louis can't unfollow Nick because the internet will read way too much into it. Sighing, he adds Nick to his private follow list just in case and shoves his phone in his pocket.

"Oh like you can talk, Veronica," Louis throws in even though he hasn't been following the conversation at all. It's enough to turn the focus onto Zayn's new hairstyle which is a topic Louis is much, much more at ease with.

*

The problem with following Nick on Twitter is that Louis now knows what Nick's dog looks like, he knows what Nick ate for dinner for the past three nights and he also knows that Nick likes James Bay as much as he does.

He's also a bit homesick, bored of being cooped up inside hotel after hotel and he's got far too much time on his hands. Which are his only excuses for when he sends Nick a DM from some hotel in Hong Kong.

**mate why are you in a fucking lobster costume??**

It takes Nick half a day to reply.

**it was for comic relief! you been creeping on my twitter then popstar? ;)**

**just wanted to make sure you weren't throwing around more compliments about my pretty face aha!**

Nick sends him a series of emojis that mostly consist of the embarrassed face, the monkey eyes and a fishing pole, for some reason.

**no need to be embarrassed mate, but personally i would have gone with zayn being the pretty one.**

Nick sends him a string of numbers in his next message which Louis realises with a jerk of surprise is his phone number. His mouth suddenly dry, he programmes it into his phone and brings up WhatsApp.

**calling me pretty and giving me your number? whatever next, nick? louis x**

Nick doesn't respond in forever, until Louis' given up staring at Nick's name and waiting for him to start typing. His phone lies discarded on the bedside table while Louis tries to fall asleep. When his phone finally vibrates, Louis almost knocks it off the table in his haste to read the message.

It's a picture of Nick's dog, whose name Louis actually knows since Nick rarely posts about anything else on his bloody Instagram, and he's got a paper in his mouth. Frowning, Louis zooms in. It's a tabloid article clearly talking about Harry's birthday party and Pig's happily chewing on Harry's face.

Louis bursts out laughing and saves the picture to his phone.

They message each other, after that. Not often and usually it's just banter or Harry's latest catastrophic story or photos of Pig that don't make it to Nick's Instagram.

But by the time Louis lands in London for their two month break, he thinks he and Nick might actually be mates. Not that they've officially declared it or anything and there's nothing public about it. They haven't tweeted each other publicly and Louis hasn't told the rest of the lads that he's talking to Nick on a semi-regular basis. He doesn't think Nick's said anything to Harry either because Harry hasn't mentioned it at all.

Louis' been home for three days before he gets a message from Nick.

**hey popstar i heard you're back in town. wanna catch up?**

Louis doesn't respond straight away. He makes himself a cup of tea and sits in front of the telly to watch Coronation Street even though he doesn't have a clue who most of the characters are anymore and the storylines make absolutely no sense to him.

Then he picks up his phone.

**sorry mate i don't hang out at fancy fashion shows or posh clubs**

**bloody hell i've been messaging the wrong popstar all this time, i meant to message zayn. he's the pretty one, right?**

Louis doesn't even realise he's scowling at his phone until he bites down hard enough on his bottom lip to taste blood.

**yeah. he is actually, mate.**

He's about to get up and find something to put on his lip when his phone starts vibrating and he realises Nick's calling him. And as much as he wants to ignore it and be a petty little brat, he finds himself answering anyway.

"Sorry, Zayn's not available," he says flatly.

"Ah well, maybe you can help me instead," Nick says cheerfully. "I'm looking for a sarcastic, annoying little popstar with a pretty face who might be interested in dinner and brilliant company."

Louis determinedly ignores the strange little flutter in his chest. "Bit vague, that description. Could be anyone."

"True," Nick agrees, and Louis can hear the amusement in his voice. "I'm looking for a specific one though. He wangs on about footie all the time. And his job, which sounds terribly boring by the way. Who cares about Singapore and Japan, honestly? Sounds well boring, mate."

"You can always press the unfollow button," Louis says sarcastically.

"Well then, where would I get my much needed updates on Doncaster's great and celebrated football team then?" Nick gasps.

"Brilliant, they're playing tomorrow night. You wanna come over and watch the match then?" Louis asks mischievously. "Since you're such a big fan and all."

There's a short pause followed by a long groan that makes Louis' grin widen in victory. "Fine, but I'm bringing dinner and you don't get to complain about it."

"Deal," Louis says quickly, because he bloody hates cooking. "I'll text you the address."

"See you tomorrow, Louis."

They hang up and Louis wonders if he's just made an actual date with Nick Grimshaw.

*

The next evening, Louis answers the door in joggers and an old Black Sabbath t-shirt that he probably nicked from Zayn. Nick's standing there, taller than Louis remembers, with two shopping bags in hand. He's wearing skinny jeans and a shirt that Louis thinks he's seen on Harry.

"Alright?" Louis asks. He steps back, feeling a bit awkward and wondering if he should have fixed his hair after all. He'd debated doing it all day, but had eventually decided on leaving it flat and soft.

"Hey popstar," Nick says easily, sweeping into the house and looking around as he toes off his boots. "Where's the kitchen then?"

Louis leads the way and jumps up onto the counter as Nick drops the bags down next to him. "I brought mini pizzas and salad. And crisps and stuff for nibbles, because footie, yeah? Lads lads lads?"

Louis just stares at Nick, who's got his hands in the air in a mini cheer. Then he bursts into laughter and Nick grins back at him, clearly pleased.

"I'm like, totally laddy," Nick says cheerfully as he busies himself with turning the rarely-used oven on and placing the pizzas inside. They look like little gourmet ones that they get sometimes at awards shows but Louis does a little rummaging in the green shopping bags and makes a satisfied noise when he pulls out a packet of sea salt and vinegar kettle chips. He wastes no time in ripping them open and shoving a handful in his mouth.

"M'ungry," Louis mumbles when Nick raises a judgemental eyebrow at him. Louis offers him the packet with an innocent smile.

"You're actually a child," Nick grumbles as he takes one single, solitary crisp which Louis scoffs at before he hops down from the counter and heads for the door.

"Call me when dinners done, yeah? Footies about to start."

He laughs when he hears Nick's outraged noise and flops down onto his ridiculously huge sofa to watch his ridiculously huge telly.

Ten minutes later, and after Louis' already yelled at three Donny players, Nick walks in with two plates and puts them down in front of Louis. Then he disappears for a minute, returning with two bottles of beer, cold from the fridge.

"Mate, you're like the best guest ever," Louis says gratefully as he takes one of the beers from Nick. "Now sit down and let me teach you all about the greatest game ever played."

By the second half, Nick's actually yelling some half-decent insults at the Donny players. Louis' impressed.

"S'alright this, isn't it?" Nick asks, nudging Louis' shoulder where they're both leant forward on the sofa, elbows braced on their knees.

Louis isn't sure whether Nick means the football, hanging out together or - well, he still isn't sure if this is a date or not. He doesn't even know if Nick knows that he's bisexual because that's a band secret and while Harry and Nick are close, Louis' almost certain that Harry doesn't share band secrets with him.

But it still kind of feels like a date.

So he hums in agreement and takes another sip of his beer. And he doesn't move his shoulder away from where it's pressed up against Nick's.

Nick's yawning when the final whistle blows.

"Well it's way past my bedtime," Nick says, getting to his feet gracefully. "But thanks for the football lesson, Lou. I reckon I've earned at least 50 lads points tonight."

"Yeah but you lost them for serving salad during the game," Louis points out. He follows Nick to the door and he's back to feeling uncomfortable again. He wraps his arms around his chest and leans against the wall as Nick shoves his feet into his boots.

"Oh well," Nick says, not sounding particularly upset about it. "So. We should do this again. Soon."

Louis absolutely does not flush. "Yeah. Sounds good, mate."

"Probably best not to go out in public though. Paps are everywhere these days. Like cockroaches, Collette says."

"You can come round again if you like," Louis offers. His fingers are biting into his skin but he keeps his smile easy. "Pretty safe here."

"Sounds good to me," Nick says. He reaches out and Louis thinks for a panicked second that he's going for a hug. But his fingers just ghost over Louis' arm then he's opening the door and slipping out, leaving Louis staring out through the glass panel. He watches as Nick's car reverses out of the drive and he curls his fingers around his arm, his eyebrows knitting together in a frown.

*

When his doorbell goes the next day, Louis pads across the hall to open it, still yawning because he's lazy and only just gotten up even though it's past midday.

He's not expecting Nick to be standing there, looking uneasy.

"Alright mate?" Louis says, surprise colouring his tone. "Forget something?"

"Maybe?" Nick mutters and he steps inside, almost brushing Louis to one side. "Lou, are you like. Fuck, this is awkward."

Louis' heart starts thumping and his expression goes blank.

Nick notices and he winces a little. "Bloody hell. Look, do you remember when you first messaged me?"

"You were dressed as a lobster," Louis says, the memory making his lips curve and easing the panic pressing down on his chest.

"No," Nick says patiently. "The message you sent me about me calling you pretty and giving you my number and what's next."

Louis' throat is suddenly dry and all he can do is nod.

"Well, usually when I think a boy is pretty and I give him my number, I cook dinner and take him to bed," Nick says, bluntly enough to make Louis' eyes widen slightly. "Except I have no fucking clue if you're gay or straight or bi or what your sexuality is. And even if you do like boys, I have no idea if you like me. But I like you. A lot. And I was going to tell you last night except usually I have a pretty good idea if someone's into me or not. But with you, I'm fucking clueless."

"Yeah," is all Louis can say.

"Yeah?" Nick echoes. "What the bloody hell does yeah mean?"

"Yeah means yeah, you wanker," Louis says because he's a dick and he's a bit overwhelmed and he doesn't know what to do with Nick Grimshaw turning up on his doorstep admitting that he likes him. So he does the only thing he can think of, which is to grab Nick's shirt, twist his hands into the material and tug hard. Nick stumbles into him as Louis rocks up on his heels and he kisses him.

Nick makes an odd little noise that has Louis pressing up harder before Nick's hands settle on Louis' waist, gripping tightly as he yanks Louis up hard against him. Louis' head is spinning a little as Nick's lips part and Louis can't stop himself from biting down on Nick's bottom lip. He hears Nick's mumbled curse against his lips and he smiles before he kisses Nick again and runs his tongue over Nick's lip in silent apology.

He lets go of Nick's shirt and starts tearing at the buttons, frustrated when he can't get them open. Eventually he just wrenches them apart, huffing out a laugh when he hears buttons scatter across his wooden hallway floor.

"You're buying me a new shirt," Nick says, not sounding put out at all and Louis tugs him down for another kiss, making pleased little noises in the back of his throat as he drags his fingers through Nick's ridiculously hairy chest.

He's vaguely aware that Nick's walking him backwards towards the stairs but he's too busy trying to lick Nick's chest to pay attention to where he's going.

"Bed," Nick mutters, his large, beautiful fingers tipping Louis' head back so Nick can kiss him again.

Louis groans at the interruption before he pulls himself away and reaches for the hem of his shirt and tugs it up over his head and lets it fall to the floor. Then he grins at Nick before he runs up the stairs, laughing as he hears Nick chase after him. He's breathless by the time he reaches his bedroom and falls back onto his bed, legs parted as Nick follows him down and kisses the column of his throat, nipping at tender skin and making Louis shiver.

"God you're so fucking fit," Nick murmurs as his hands trail down over Louis' lean body.

"Less talking," Louis says, panting as he reaches down between them, drawing a low groan from Nick as he cups him through his jeans. He scrambles to get Nick's fly down and then Nick's standing up and wriggling out of his jeans.

"Mmm, sexy," Louis teases, shoving his own joggers down before he reaches for Nick, dragging him back down to the bed. Their dicks rub together and Louis lets out a low hiss of pleasure that's swallowed by Nick's mouth on his.

Nick rolls his hips down and Louis bucks up helplessly, tearing his mouth away from Nick's so he can breathe. Nick trails kisses down his jaw and neck and continues down until he's nuzzling his face into Louis' crotch and he's urging Louis to bend his legs and plant his feet on the mattress.

"This is gonna be over in like, two seconds," Louis says as he reaches down to tangle his fingers in Nick's ridiculous hair.

"Just think of it as round one," Nick says roughly as his hand curls around the base of Louis' dick and squeezes gently. "Something to take the edge off."

"Round ... one?" Louis mutters before he's arching off the bed when Nick's lips wrap around his dick. "Fuck!"

Nick's mouth is warm and wet around him and Louis almost comes right then before he reminds himself to breathe. He tugs on Nick's hair and learns that Nick likes having his hair pulled, if the whimpers he makes around Louis' dick are anything to go by. He's rewarded with Nick licking at his slit before he swallows Louis down, deepthroating him. "Oh my fucking god," Louis pants as his hips try to arch up but Nick keeps him pinning to the bed with a surprisingly strong grip.

"Fuck, Nick I'm gonna come," Louis gasps because he made the mistake of glancing down and seeing Nick's lips stretched obscenely around his dick and his gaze firmly locked on Louis, hungry and almost as wrecked as Louis feels. His body arches and he comes with a low cry down Nick's throat.

Louis can feel Nick's throat constricting around him as he swallows and Louis whimpers weakly as he sinks into the mattress, completely drained. It's all he can do to settle his hands on Nick's shoulders and pull half-heartedly. Nick pulls off of his dick with a final lick that makes Louis shiver before Nick's crawling up his body, his cock hard against Louis' thigh as he presses his lips to Louis'. The kiss is messy and filthy and Louis licks into Nick's mouth, moaning as he tastes himself.

He's vaguely aware that Nick's slipped his hand down between them and he's stroking himself off while they kiss. Louis digs his fingers into Nick's shoulders and trails his fingers down, leaving long, angry scratches down Nick's back that make him shudder and arch into Louis as he comes, Louis' name on his lips as he stripes Louis' cock and belly with his come.

Spent, Nick collapses down onto Louis and he buries his face in Louis' neck, breathing heavily.

Louis' hands stroke his back gently while they catch their breath.

"Well, that was-"

"Fast?" Louis supplies. "Sorry, it's just uh, been a while."

"A while or never?" Nick mumbles into his neck.

"Fuck off," Louis says dryly. "A while. Almost a year."

"I don't have that excuse," Nick says, and he sounds half-asleep. "You're just really fit."

Louis tries not to preen and he fails miserably. "Yeah. But like, you're also old. So there's that."

"M'not that old, m'only thirty," Nick says.

"Ancient," Louis agrees. "Besides, m'not fit. You said I was pretty. S'different, innit."

Nick finally lifts his head at that and frowns down at him. His hand finds Louis' hip and his thumb strokes over warm, soft skin. "You're both though. You know, like how I'm both boyish and distinguished."

"That's code for immature and old," Louis says, but it comes out softer than he means it to. He clears his throat and turns his face away from Nick's searching gaze to stare at the wall. "So like, after you've called a lad pretty and gotten his number and made him dinner and taken him to bed. Is that it then?"

"Well," Nick says thoughtfully. "I guess there's round two. You know, after a shower and maybe some food."

"Round two sounds good," Louis says quietly, and squeezes his eyes shut tightly.

"I dunno what happens after that, but like, we could find out. If you want."

Louis exhales slowly and opens his eyes to find Nick still watching him carefully. "Yeah. We could do that."

Nick's smile is slow and bright, and Louis wraps his arms around Nick's neck and holds on tight.


End file.
